LYNNFIELD — The beginning of the return to normalcy is taking shape in Lynnfield’s schools.
Beginning next Monday, Lynnfield’s kindergartners will be the first students in the district to return to school on a full-time basis, attending school four and a half days a week as they did pre-pandemic.
“We are so looking forward to having our littlest learners back in the classrooms,” Superintendent Kristen Vogel said at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting. “We’ve been talking about this since the beginning of the school year, but at that point, the kids hadn’t been in school yet and we didn’t know how they would be wearing masks and hand washing and practicing social distancing. Now, we know they have mastered all of the safety protocols.
“One thing was also that we had to balance the public health metrics and the capacity of the kindergartners to handle those protocols. It wasn’t until mid-January that the metrics began to improve. The students mastered the safety protocols. They have their routines down so that’s how we got to where we are.”
Vogel said that a new remote-only teacher has been hired to ensure the system is equitable.
“We still have families who continue to learn at home, so we had to make sure that all students have equal access,” Vogel said.
Classrooms have been re-configured and will be fitted with smaller desks, which were recently purchased with Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds. The delivery of the desks has been delayed due to adverse weather conditions across much of the country.
In response to a question from committee member Tim Doyle, Vogel said there will be limited opportunity for students to commingle due to new classroom configurations.
“Over the years, we moved away from the traditional single desks to group tables, horseshoe and trapezoid shapes, but now we have had to move back to individual desks or one child per table,” Vogel said. “Now, it’s very much linear in rows from the front of the class to the back. It does look very different than in the past and teachers will try to work with students with dividers to do more individual work with them.”
Lunch routines have also been altered with three classrooms eating in the all-purpose room and one classroom eating in the classroom on an alternating basis.
“We are only able to fit three classes at once, but will rotate the classes so the same classroom isn’t always eating in the classroom,” Vogel said.
The district added in-person learning on Wednesdays, a day that had been dedicated to remote learning only for all students since September.
Students will be in school on alternating Wednesdays. Cohort C started on February 24, while Cohort B will be in school next Wednesday. Remote students will continue to log into Zoom.
Kindergartners aren’t the only district students with increased in-person learning. Plans are already in the works to bring the first and second grades back on a full-time basis as early as mid-March. Vogel said the district is working with teachers and will be sending additional information to parents next week to determine the number of families planning to return.
“We need that information to know whether we need to purchase more desks and figure out lunches and pick-up and drop-off procedures,” Vogel said, adding the district will likely hire additional remote-only teachers and that the return will be phased in one grade at a time.
Doyle stressed the need for parents to remain cautious and patient.
“We all acknowledge that we are getting out of the tunnel, but need to caution parents that while we are heading there, it might be (at a) snail’s pace at one point and a sprint at another,” Doyle said. “Older parents with older children at the middle school and high school have different sets of issues due to the fact that they are moving throughout the buildings.”
Larger class sizes in the older grades are also a factor, Vogel said.
“That makes it more difficult to be sure, and we are still waiting on more information from the commissioner,” said Vogel. “We know the state is targeting either the beginning or middle of April for a full return. We’ll learn more as we go along, but we’re already moving toward bringing the elementary schools back. We are ahead of the game, so stay tuned.”
As of March 19, the district will no longer require remote families to commit to a 30-day period.
“This is a message reflective of families doing the right thing and that’s why we can roll this back,” said Committee Chair Jamie Hayman. “Thanks to everyone in the community for this.”
